The Boston Bruins snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by scoring a late tying goal from Morgan Geekie with 10 seconds remaining. Next, Elias Lindholm's overtime winner was another feel-good moment in his resurgence this season, sending fans home happy after another victory for the Atlantic Division leaders.
Nevertheless, it's important not to forget about how poorly the first 59:50 of the game went, and that the Chicago Blackhawks looked so abysmal that there was no way the Bruins should've been in the game with them. You can point to multiple posts that should've gotten past Arvid Soderblom and a bad bounce that gave Connor Bedard a breakaway for his goal, but there were plenty of other mistakes that day, and it all started with Marco Sturm's lineup decisions.
Frederic Brunet, Matthew Poitras need to be in Bruins' lineup
You can understand starting Michael DiPietro against one of the league's worst teams, and he performed well enough to steal two points for the Bruins. However, substituting Matthew Poitras and Frederic Brunet for Sean Kuraly and Jonathan Aspirot was a step in the wrong direction for the youth movement, and I hope we don't see it too often going forward.
At this point, Aspirot has to be a candidate to be placed on waivers for reassignment to Providence. With the way Michael Eyssimont is playing in the AHL, he deserves the chance to ride the charter in the NHL, and teams normally operate with two extra forwards and one extra defenseman anyway. Brunet should be back in the lineup, and Connor Clifton should be the only defenseman in the press box.
Poitras has been playing too well for Kuraly to do more at this point in his career. There were a couple of plays on Saturday where the Bruins could've used Poitras skating and extra offensive ability, while we saw why offense dies on Kuraly's stick. The fourth line plays well with the veteran center, but they are more dangerous offensively with Poitras.
Whether Aspirot was trying to do too much to stay in the lineup, it's becoming increasingly clear that he might be a bit over his head at the NHL level. You cannot make any argument that he should be in there over Brunet or Clifton right now, and having Sturm give him a pity dress in a massive game the Bruins needed to win was a bit concerning.
It felt like Sturm took the Blackhawks lightly by giving his extras a game, and I think the team responded in kind. They'll need their best lineup possible on Monday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.
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